Also known as “milk cookies” or biscottoni da latte, this is a floral take on the classic, of course made without animal ingredients, and with an added glaze. Biscottoni are somewhere between a scone and a traditional cookie/biscuit in texture, and are less sweet than a traditional American cookie/biscuit.
I don’t like to use flax eggs (or any separate, specific egg substitute) in my baked goods in general, and find that subbing the same amount of fat and liquid as one finds in a large egg (~40 g water, 5 g fat) is usually adequate for achieving the tender, regular crumb one would expect of a baked good containing chicken egg. (This substitute cannot be used when egg whites are a leavener in a non-vegan recipe, like when a recipe has you lightening a batter with egg whites, or when eggs are the load-bearing leavener, such as in angel food cake.)
As for the flowers in this recipe, make sure you use English lavender, not French/Spanish lavender, as the latter has a bitterer taste and isn’t great for culinary applications. If you’re picking your own lavender, I recommend doing so a day or two in advance and letting it sit so that any ants or bugs on it can get away.
Recipe
Scalable Version of Recipe: Lavender Biscottoni
Make a copy (File > Make a Copy) to get a version of the recipe that can easily have the batch size changed
Yields: 1 dozen cookies (40 g each)
Servings: 12
Active Time: 10 minutes
Bake Time: 15 minutes
Passive Time: 25 minutes (just the cookies) | 3 hours (minimum time for glaze to set)
Total Time: 50 minutes (just the cookies) | 4 hours (if glazing cookies)
Ingredients
Lavender Milk Infusion
125 g Unsweetened Plain Vegan Milk, divided. Will use less if not glazing
2 Tbsp English Lavender Flower Heads, no need to remove from stems
Cookies
Dry
235 g All Purpose Flour
2 tsp (8 g) Baking Powder
1/4 tsp (1 g) Kosher Salt, table salt: 1/2 of volume, same weight
Wet
105 g Granulated Sugar
65 g Vegan Butter, cool room temp (~18C | 65F)
1 tsp (4 g) Vanilla Extract, optional. See notes
80 g Lavender Milk Infusion, cool room temp (~18C | 65F)
Settable Almond Glaze
120 g Powdered Sugar, sifted
25-45 g Lavender Milk Infusion, can be plain, cool room temp (~18C | 65F)
15 g Vegan Butter, cool room temp (~18C | 65F)
10 g Corn Syrup
1/4 tsp (1 g) Almond Extract, more to taste, optional. See notes
Salt, to taste
Lavender Flowers, optional, to garnish
Notes
Dough freezes well. Portion and freeze for up to 6 months
Allow to come back up to cool room temp (~18C | 65F) before baking
Extract choices: If you don’t want to do these lavender flavored, you could use plain milk and play around with different extracts (orange, lemon, peppermint (<halve if using), almond (<halve if using), coconut etc.). Zests (lemon, orange, lime) could also be added to the dough, and one could also play around with rosewater, orange water, sherry, or brandy in place of some of the milk. You can also mix lavender flowers into the dough
Method
Lavender Milk Infusion:
In small saucepan, heat milk and lavender until it just reaches a boil.
Turn down heat and allow to simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
Let cool to room temp. Strain out flowers when ready to use.
Cookies:
In medium bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. Set aside.
In large mixing bowl, or bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar (medium speed, 4 minutes, stop and scrape halfway through).
Stop and scrape bowl. Add vanilla extract and beat on medium one minute more.
With mixer on low, alternate adding dry ingredients and lavender milk, beginning and ending with the dry mixture.
Dough should be very pliable and not very sticky.
Line sheet(s) with parchment paper/silicone baking mats
40 g portions (2 Tbsp/#30 scoop)
Roll into ovals. Spacing: ~5 cm | 2 inches
Flatten tops a bit
Chill dough while oven preheats.
Oven: 180C | 350F. Middle Rack.
Bake 15-18 minutes, or until golden. Remove to cooling rack.
Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for at least 10 minutes. Don’t ice until cookies are cooled completely
Glaze:
In blender, whiz together ingredients (but only 25 g of milk) except the lavender flowers, adding more milk as needed. Consistency should be like pancake batter. Taste and add salt to adjust sweetness.
Ice cookies. Sprinkle lavender flowers on top (if using).
In the fridge, the glaze will set enough for the cookies to be stackable in 3-4 hours.
At room temp, it takes overnight (8 hours) or more, depending on room temp and humidity
Inspiration Recipe
Sugar Love Spices’ Milk Cookies (Biscottoni)
Changes to original recipe:
-Changed the flavor profile to lavender
-Subbed egg for vegan butter and vegan milk
-Changed the fat source from a liquid to solid (ie, from unsaturated veggie oil to saturated veggie oil, aka vegan butter)
-Adjusted the amount of flour down (first batch was a little too flour-y)
-Upped the sugar (first batch was a little too bland)
-Nailed down the salt amount in the cookies (only a pinch of salt wasn’t enough)
-Made the recipe into an even dozen instead of 10 cookies (adjusted the ingredient amounts a bit so that each cookie would be 40 g instead of the original recipe’s 50 g per cookie)
-Changed the method to cream the butter and sugar
-Adjusted baking time
-Went with a glaze instead of sugar topping
Thread & Thrum 